Digital bank Monzo is reportedly expanding its fundraising to £500 million as part of a round which includes capital from Hedosophia. This, according to an update from Sky News.
Sources revealed on Sunday that Monzo might confirm as soon as this week that Hedosophia and Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation (GIC) are said to be participating in an overall fundraising of around £500 million.
The substantial investment round makes it one of the biggest ever achieved by a UK tech firm.
One source stated that the GIC would be investing more than £50 million with Hedosophia also contributing tens of millions of pounds.
The latest fundraising had been led by Capital G, the independent growth fund of Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company.
Monzo’s potential expanded fundraising is most likely to mean that it may not need any additional funding if it decides, as anticipated, to go public in the coming years.
The virtual bank, which claims millions of customers in the United Kingdom, had recently secured a valuation of over £4 billion after finalizing the first phase of its investment round.
As covered in March of 2024, UK’s challenger bank Monzo has finalized a heavily-trailed $400 million investment round, which has increased the firm’s valuation to $5 billion.
The funding round, an incentive for pushing the banking platform towards profitability, was reportedly led by Alphabet-owned Capital G, along with contributions from Google Ventures, HongShan Capital, and existing investors such as Passion Capital and Tencent.
Monzo had previously acquired funding back in late 2021, obtaining $500 million at a $4.5 billion valuation – 3x the £1.1 billion price tag it acquired in its previous discounted capital-raise earlier that same year.
This announcement came as Monzo reports over 9 million personal account customers, making it the 7th largest retail bank in the United Kingdom by customer numbers.
After a challenging post-COVID market, the Fintech firm has managed to bounce back quite a bit, introducing a range of services for pension and investment as well as preparing for a move into the insurance sector.
Following years of posting major losses, the banking challenger is finally expecting to reach profitability during 2024.
TS Anil, CEO of Monzo stated:
“We’ve built incredible momentum in the business over the past few years. With backing from global investors, we have the rocket fuel to go after our ambitions harder and faster, building Monzo into the one app that sits at the centre of our customers’ financial lives.”
